BUT there were false prophets among the people, as there will be false
teachers also among you, who wickedly introduce damnable heresies, and
deny the sovereign Lord who bought them, bringing on themselves swift
destruction. (2)And many will go out of the way after their fatal
errors; by means of whom the way of truth will be injuriously reviled.
(3)And with plausible speeches will they avariciously make gain of you
whose condemnation from of old lingereth not, and their perdition doth
not slumber. (4)For if God spared not the angels when they sinned, but
casting them bound in chains of darkness into hell, delivered them to
be kept fast until the judgment; (5)and spared not the old world, but
guarded safely Noah the eighth person, the preacher of righteousness,
when he brought a deluge on the world of the ungodly: (6)and reducing
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, condemned them to final
destruction, making them an example for all who in future should live
ungodly; (7)but righteous Lot, afflicted grievously with the infamously
impure conduct of those lawless men, he plucked out: (8)for by seeing
and hearing, that righteous man whilst sojourning among them, suffered
torment day by day in his righteous soul from their lawless doings;
(9)the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, but to
reserve the wicked unto the day of judgment to be punished:
(10)especially such as walk after the flesh in the eager pursuit of
defilement, and despise government. Daring, self-sufficient, they
tremble not at dignities, railing against them. (11)Whereas the angels,
though so much greater in might and power, bring not a reviling
accusation against them before the Lord. (12)But these men, as the
naturally irrational brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed,
speaking evil of the things of which they are ignorant, will perish by
their own corruption; (13)receiving the recompence of iniquity,
counting daily luxury their pleasure; spots and blemishes, when they
feast together with you; riotously indulging in their own delusions:
(14)having eyes full of adultery, and insatiable of sin; ensnaring
souls of no stability; having a heart practised in all the wiles of
covetousness; children for a curse: (15)who forsaking the strait road
are gone out of the way, following the path of Balaam the son of Bosor
who loved the wages of iniquity. (16)But received a reproof for his
peculiar transgression: the dumb ass articulating with a human voice
restrained the perverseness of the prophet.
(17)These are fountains without water, clouds driven by a hurricane;
for whom the blackness of darkness for ever is reserved. (18)Uttering
pompous discourses of inanity, ensnaring by the lusts of the flesh, by
lascivious impurities, those who had truly escaped from such as live in
a course of delusion. (19)Preaching liberty to them, while they
themselves are the slaves of corruption: for by whatever a man is
overcome, by that also he is enslaved. (20)For if having escaped from
the defilements of the world by the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, they are again enveloped by them and overcome, their last
deeds are worse than the first. (21)For it had been better for them
never to have been acquainted with the way of righteousness, than,
after knowing it, to have turned aside from the holy commandment
delivered unto them. (22)But the true proverb is verified in them, The
dog hath returned to his own vomit; and the sow which was washed to its
wallowing in the mire.